Thursday, February 15, 2007

There's a classic episode of Roseanne in which she and Dan find a stash of marijuana in the basement and quickly jump to conclusions that it must be David's or Darlene's, only to later realize that it's their own stash that they hid down there years ago after she got pregnant with Becky. Later in the episode, with all of the kids out of the house and Jackie hanging out in their living room as usual, they all three decide to roll a joint and smoke it up for old time's sake.

The scene that follows - the one that shows them all completely stoned in the bathroom and carrying on in typical stoner fashion - is by far one of the funniest sitcom moments I have ever seen in my entire life. No matter how many times I see that episode on Nick @ Nite, it still has me near tears with laughter everytime that scene comes on my TV screen.

And I would suppose I find it so hilarious because (I can only imagine. No, really.) that's exactly what being high is like. Not that I speak from experience or anything. Drugs are bad. Just say "no" and all that shit.

Nonetheless, that same exact hypothetical life-analysis is the reason I was again practically falling off of my couch at this past weekend's episode of Brothers and Sisters.

First of all, I don't think it's possible to express just how deeply I love Sally Field. She's brilliant beyond brilliant. I craved the episodes of ER when she would show up as Abby's bi-polar mother, Maggie. She's simply a thrill to watch, because she's just so good at what she does. And to be honest, she was a huge part of why I decided to give B/S a chance in the first place. Her, and the fact that it also had Ally McBeal as well as Getty and Sloane from Alias. I'm easily lured by loved characters from my past. Still, Sally Field was the clencher.

I have to say that if there was one thing I never thought I would witness Sally Field playing on-screen, it would have been "stoned out of her mind on weed." But it was so effing perfect and hilarious that I had to pause and rewind the TiVo at least five times before I stopped being utterly entertained with it all.

Her portrayal of Nora Walker has been priceless from day one of this show. She's actually a lot like Maggie from ER whenever Maggie was on her meds, which is kind of fun to notice. And her chemistry with Calista is completely to die for, so I love that they have the love/hate relationship of the family. It makes for such a good time whenever they're in a room together.

The only problem I'm having with this show is getting past all of the connections to past shows that I have with so many of the actors. To begin with, it's a show run by Ken Olin who directed assloads of Alias episodes and the cinematography of B/S is so completely the exact same style that I can't even help myself when I scream out "That's a file shot from an Alias exterior!" I'm a freak, but that's beside the point.

Secondly, the addition of Rob Lowe absolutely had me doing the happy dance all over my apartment because I love him so damn much... but he's a politician and everything he says sounds like a politician and now he's running for the White House and I just CANNOT stop wanting to call him Sam or waiting for Josh and Donna to come walking into the room. It's incredibly distracting. I do, however, adore the relationship between he and Kitty that has now finally come to fruition. Finally I have a 'ship for this show. YAY!

Okay and third? Getty and Sloane. Getty a.k.a Tom Grace a.k.a Balthazar Getty from Alias, who I didn't fall in love with on that show but you know what? His name was Tom on that show and it's Tommy on this show, too. It's too hard for me to focus on the difference when I'm already focusing on the scar through his eyebrow every effing time that I see his face. And as for Saul? It makes it really, REALLY hard for me trust Saul and not suspect that he's up to some secret, evil plot when all I can think of when I look at him is Arvin Sloane. Just the sound of his voice resonates evil plots of secrecy in my brain, and it's very hard to focus.

Oh, and I also find it pretty hilarious that Ken Olin had his wife play Dr. Barnett on Alias, who eventually had an affair with Sloane, and now he has his wife playing Holly on B/S and she's having (once upon a time did have, I guess) an affair with Saul. It yet again fucks with my mind to see them in a scene together. As if seeing Ron Rifkin and Getty in scenes together wasn't already setting off neurons in my brain wondering when Syd and the gang were going to join in on the meeting. Ugh.

It all hurts my brain way too much.

But I do really, truly adore this show. I also think I'm going to end up hard-core 'shipping Justin/Tyler and possibly even Kevin/Scotty as time goes by; I was liking Kevin with Chad, if for no other reason than that I enjoy any opportunity to see Jason Lewis shirtless, but I have a soft spot in my heart for Scotty and really think he'd be excellent for Kevin. As for Justin and Tyler, I just think they're crazyass adorable and will have plenty of time to continue being adorable...

...because you know there's no way in hell he's actually going to end up having to go back to war. I don't know how it's going to happen, but they'll get him out of it somehow. And I can't wait to see what happens next.

Interested in Joining?

We write about what we love--which means sometimes good shows get neglected because they're just not our thing. What do you watch that we're not covering? Are you interested in bringing the voice of that fandom to Chaos in General? Leave a comment and we'll talk!